Secondo Tempo by Giovanni Tommaso Quintet

Prior to reviewing this CD- I knew nothing of Giovanni Tommaso, and I must say that within a couple of minutes into the first track I quickly became a big fan. The quintet is comprised of an all star cast including Luca Begonia on the trombone, Antonio Farao on the piano, the unique stylings of Terry Lynn Carrington on the drums, the fabulous tenor sax of Joe Lovano and of course Tommaso on the bass.

Tommaso began playing with his brother Lucca and formed a group called Quartetto di Lucca which was initially influenced by the Modern Jazz Quartet. He has recorded with John Lewis, Lee Konitz, Conte Candoli, Frank Rosolino and Quartetto di Luca. Additionally he has recorded over a hundred hours of soundtrack music for films.

From the liner notes, Giovanni says "When I was a young boy cinema made me dream and many of those dreams incredibly did come true. I thank CAM jazz for giving me another opportunity to pay this tribute to the art of fiction. I could not help but call this Secondo Tempo (Second Part) Enjoy-"

And enjoyable Secondo Tempo is with Tommaso arranging all 10 cuts (over 56 minutes of music) on the CD. All 10 tracks are taken from memorable Italian films. Check out Divorzio All'Italiana (Divorce Italian Style) starting with Begonia and Lovano (trombone and sax) playing catch and return with each other. It transitions to Lovano's unique voice on the sax taking the melody while Tommaso really gets in the groove. Not to be outdone, Begonia and Farao each get a chance at the lead, and it finishes with Begonia and Lovano again playing catch and return. Il Clan dei Siciliani (The Sicilian Clan) offers Tommaso the chance to showcase his considerable strength and range on the bass. Finally, for you Godfather fans, Tommaso includes Il Padrino (the Godfather theme). An absolutely haunting rendition played with Lovano's sax imparting lots of soul. You can just here Don Corleone say " I'm going to make you an offer you cant refuse".

Some good stuff here from the Giovanni Tommaso Quintet - Check it out.